The Fun Years — One Quarter Descent

If you listen closely, you can hear it — the sound of water trickling gently under black ice. Just when you thought winter might never end, suddenly amidst the sodden trash, a vision of daisies: "Because," as we are told, "these are the stakes! to make a world in which all of God's children can live, or to go into the dark! we must either love each other, or we must die."

The Fun Years never really ended, did they? They started this loop in 2003 and just pressed the latest iteration to tape. And to be honest, you haven't changed, either. So put your ear to the rail and feel the vibration. The steel is cold but the pitch is true.

The Fun Years are still Ben Recht and Isaac Sparks.Ben plays baritone guitar.Isaac plays turntable.[blank] happens.

The first 10 orders will receive a hand silkscreened t-shirt designed & printed by Isaac of The Fun Years. You will be notified via your PayPal email address if you are one of the first 10 orders. Shirts will ship separately from cassettes.

Reviews

"The sonic depth the group’s known for somehow sounds deeper than ever... textures slowly woven into a warm blanket of fuzzy bliss, all with that sepia/scratched-lens filter on everything... Goddamn, it’s fucking gorgeous."— Tiny Mix Tapes

"...one of the unique aspects of the listening experience is in it’s divergence from escapism, though it triggers something aesthetically in my memory the sounds themselves actually mix in perfectly with whatever noise is surrounding me at that time. A whistling stranger does not get lost in these melodies, rather their unique voice is amplified amongst the surrounding beauty, it is strangely passive music that provides a welcome filter to dreary days."— Decoder

"The narcotic guitar loops, the lonesome vinyl crackle… it all melds together to become an endless series of soporific interludes, content on massaging out the last knot of tension from anyone willing to listen. Beautiful."— Fact Mag

"Ben Recht and Isaac Sparks have a somewhat unconventional style that incorporates both a turntable and a baritone guitar; a typical town with unexpected instruments. This lovely pink tape is something you need to get your hands on. Spring Break Tapes are an insanely fresh cassette label; they are highly thought of. One Quarter Descent is another doozy... Another gorgeous panorama floats by, the tracks mixing gently into one another; you can soak into this kind of drone."— A Closer Listen

"Using only a turntable and a baritone guitar, the duo crafts long stretches of droning bliss that encircle you and slowly blur the line between reality and their own aural fantasies. / Recht and Sparks utilize looping sections of guitar tones and layers of crackling vinyl hiss to evoke vast landscapes of music frozen in time. But alongside this feeling of rhythmic stillness, there is also a curious sense of cathartic circuital anticipation. The songs themselves bleed together in a way that doesn't diminish their individuality but heightens and reinforces the album's connective musical tissue."— Nooga

"...textured atmospheres that exist somwhere between the headphones, but certainly not within the listeners mind, as they expand outward reaching for an infinite loop that begs for far more than fifteen minutes if a meditative state is truly to be reached."— Dingus

"The Fun Years excel at reconciling their gadgets with a dreamy organic vibe, like the meandering thoughts of a cyborg with its head in the clouds. Their emphasis on the repetition of simple phrases evokes a similar sort of atmosphere to minimalist composers of yore, while the contrast created by recht’s guitar and sparks’ electronics,adds to their freshness among drone artists."— Boston Hassle